Starboard and Apollo have first conversations with Casino over Via retail

Starboard, a company specialized in restructuring companies, with its partner, the North American manager Apollo, must meet with the Casino group in about 15 days to begin to tune a conversation, still preliminary, about eventual acquisition of Via Varejo. The interest of Starboard and Apollo is in the slice that the Casino has 36.2%, through the Pão de Açúcar group, in the owner of Casas Bahia and Ponto Frio. They will discuss the synergy of a possible merger of Via Varejo with the vending machine, controlling the networks Ricardo Eletro and Insinuante, in which Starboard has a participation of 72%. Funding. The acquisition would be financed by the Fund of R $1.5 billion constituted by Starboard, where the manager has US $250 million. In addition, the Apollo, in parallel, must compose financially the acquisition. Overseas, the U.S. manager closed this week with the Casino to acquire 32 real estate where the French network operates supermarkets, for about ¤ 400 million. Sought, Via retail and Casino have not commented.